Halfling barbarian?

[Spacehamster]

If you wanted to make a halfling barbarian, how would you set it up to maximize its efficiency? Stat allocation, multiclass, feats and so on?

Probably put in 8 levels fighter of some type to get 6 ASI’s to compensate for the extra bump needed to max STR?

[JellyPooga]

No need to "maximise ASI's" You can point-buy 14 or 15 Str and that's plenty with one or two ASI's. Str 20 is nice to have, but by no means essential, even for a Barbarian.

Being a Halfling has very little bearing on how to build your Barbarian; more important for build is the style of Barbarian you want.

That said, Stout Halflings make remarkably resilient Barbarians; +Dex and +Con means better AC (armoured or unarmoured) as well as better HP. Dual wield Shortswords or Scimitars (using Str, of course) and go to town.

[Isaire]

Why would you need extra ASI's to compensate for at most 2 less strength at 1st level? And 8 levels of fighter is a huge amount. If you've got spare levels for 8 levels of fighter, you might as well stay in barbarian for the awesome capstone, which is equivalent to 4 ASI's.

That's what I'd do anyway. More interesting is what kind of weapons etc you would use - are you a sword and board halfing? Dual wield? Will influence your choice of archetype. Not like you are going to get GWM, so that's one feat saved!

15 str + 16 con and 16 dex is possible, could grab a feat (tavern brawler?) to get 1 str or grab +1 str +1 con and later durable (for at least 12 hp per hit die rolled, and 15 if you increase con to 20, and at level 20 you'd get 19 hp per hd. Not at all bad :P

[Errata]

Whether optimal or not, with an unconventional race/class combination I would focus the build on something unusual that not everyone can do, that you can do with your unique synergy, and have fun with it that way. One thing that a Halfling melee character can do that not everyone can is move through enemy spaces, due to a combination of size and the racial ability. Normal medium size barbarians can only move through Huge enemies spaces, while Halflings can do it to typical medium size enemies.

So you could take a look at feats related to positioning, such as: Mobile, Sentinel, Mage Slayer. Barbarian paths related to positioning: Storm Herald. Eagle, Wolf, or Elk Totem (and Bear or Tiger only at very high levels 14+).

[mgshamster]

Whether optimal or not, with an unconventional race/class combination I would focus the build on something unusual that not everyone can do, that you can do with your unique synergy, and have fun with it that way. One thing that a Halfling melee character can do that not everyone can is move through enemy spaces, due to a combination of size and the racial ability. Normal medium size barbarians can only move through Huge enemies spaces, while Halflings can do it to typical medium size enemies.

So you could take a look at feats related to positioning, such as: Mobile, Sentinel, Mage Slayer. Barbarian paths related to positioning: Storm Herald. Eagle, Wolf, or Elk Totem (and Bear or Tiger only at very high levels 14+).

That's a cool idea. Now I want to do this.

[Wryte]

I was playing a stout halfling barbarian for a bit before I left AL to run a home game, but I had a blast with her. Her Con and Dex bonuses meant she had an Unarmored AC of 16 from level 1.

Since she couldn't wield heavy weapons without disadvantage, I took Dual Wielder at 4th level and gave her two battleaxes, which kept her damage from falling too far behind despite her 14 strength and lack of a greataxe, while also bumping her AC up.

I choose Totem as her path, but rather than the ever-present Bear, I chose Eagle. Eagle's effect of causing opportunity attacks against me to be made with disadvantage while I'm raging, combined with Halfling Nimbleness allowing me to move through spaces occupied by larger creatures, and further combined with my solid AC, meant that I was like a little hurricane, whirling through formations of enemy orcs with near impunity as they all whiffed their reactions on me.

She was also fun in that she had a tendency to McGyver her own pseudo-magic items out of monster parts, bits of the environment, and garbage. Frustrated with being one of the only party members unable to see in the dark, when she founds some glowing cave mushrooms, she picked them and stuck them on an antler crown taken from an evil druid, making herself a headlamp. After slaying a Roper, she harvested its tentacles to craft a whip with 20 ft reach. She was most particularly fond, however, of collecting bits of leather, claws, teeth, etc., from beasts she had bested with which to expand her wardrobe of battle bikinis. Probably her favorite was the black dragon hide with red dragon scale highlights.

[GlenSmash!]

About the only change I would make for a Halfling Barbarian as opposed to any other barbarian is accepting that i won't be able to make the most of Heavy Weapons with GWM/PAM. Oh and you have to start with a 15 or less Strength if not rolling for stats. That's no big deal either.

Barbarians make fine shield masters and fine grapplers.

Heck i could make a Ancestral Guardians Halfling Barbarian that starts with 14 strength and still maxes strength to 20 no problem. I'd keep his dex at 14 and wear medium armor. I'd still have a couple of feats left for Sentinel or Shield Master.

[DnDegenerates]

Dump str. Max hard on Dex and con.

Make it your original quest.to find a magical str boost like you've heard of in the stories.

Once you get that item or whatever to boost str(there are a few), you Will suddenly realize that you were able to get max hp and ac with minimum asi placements while still being able to smash things. You'll also be able to used more ranged weapons. Start shield and rapier and just suck it up that your rages are mreh.

The best part. Work it into your backstory and roleplay. Thematically it could be awesome if you work for it.

[CTurbo]

I played a Stout Halfling Fenzy Barb and it was an EXTREMELY fun character. We did roll stats though so I was able to start 14 Str, 18 Dex, 18 Con, 4 Int, 12 Wis, 6 Cha. I did not roll a 4 but requested it for Int as I wanted to play him as a wild feral animal type.

This character was not meant to be min/maxed for optimized effectiveness so the DM did give me a few liberties. He used a single Light Hammer and the DM made a deal with me that as long as I had a single 1d4 weapon, he let me have the Frenzy's 14th level Retaliation feature at level 4. I took the Mobile feat at level 4 and used hit and run tactics when not raging usually running in between a teammates' legs and then retreating behind them afterwards. Once I got attacked, I would immediately enter a Frenzy and go Berserk. At that point, He would just go into attack mode. He often climbed up enemies when possible, especially Large or larger enemies and then bash it's head in.

The only downfall was if I got more than 2 levels of exhaustion, I would sit out encounters to sleep. I tried to offset this by taking long rests as often as possible often sleeping on one of the other players while traveling. Or when the team would be in town for business, I'd go off and sleep. When I didn't need the extra rest, I'd always find something to get into. He liked to sleep in the Goliath teammate's bag lol




If I had to make this character using point buy, I'd probably go 14 Str, 16 Dex, 16 Con, 8 int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha after Stout Halfling racials. As mentioned above, you don't HAVE to rely on having a high Str.

[Tanarii]

I've been wanting to play one every since I read Dungeonomics. But I run games more than play recently.

I'd probably do:
Stout Barbarian Sailor
Str 15, Dex 14 (+2 racial), Con 13 (+1 racial), Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Skills: Athletics, Nature, Perception, Survival
Wield a Longsword in 2 hands.
Level 4 Feat Athlete (Str -> 16)
Remaining ASIs alternate: Con 16, Str 18, Con 18, Str 20

Pretty basic, but no need to be extra. "Halfling Viking Raider" is already plenty. :smallamused:

[MeeposFire]

Dump str. Max hard on Dex and con.

Make it your original quest.to find a magical str boost like you've heard of in the stories.

Once you get that item or whatever to boost str(there are a few), you Will suddenly realize that you were able to get max hp and ac with minimum asi placements while still being able to smash things. You'll also be able to used more ranged weapons. Start shield and rapier and just suck it up that your rages are mreh.

The best part. Work it into your backstory and roleplay. Thematically it could be awesome if you work for it.

Personally I would not recommend this unless you know for sure that you are going to get one of those str boosting items (I have not had those kind of assurances) and that you are ok with permanently losing out on one attuned item for your entire career. In addition until you start attacking with str you will not be gaining a damage boost from rage or get to use reckless attack which is probably the biggest reason to play a barbarian. I would think carefully before committing to playing a barb without using str as an attack stat for a potentially long period of time.

Honestly I think people make too much of the strength difference. stout halfling will not have to spend as much on dex or con than some races and so in the long run are really not that far behind if at all as some other major races at least in terms of ability scores. The biggest difference is being unable to effectively use heavy weapons but honestly while heavy weapons with a barb means some very nice damage you can deal viable damage without them and you can build for some better defenses or decent damage using a shield or two weapons (rage damage applies to both weapon attacks and even without spending a feat on dual weapon the difference in damage dice is not that huge).

For max damage if you want to spend an ASI on just one feat then you could go with PAM and use a one handed quarterstaff with a shield. Some people may not like it due to the one handed quarterstaff so keep that in mind but in terms of RAW that is probably the best damage option for a halfling barb while keeping full defenses.

[DarkKnightJin]

I hear 'Halfling Barbarian', I think 'Scourge of Kneecaps'.

Which is a hilarious mental image, honestly. I might make one for funsies one time.

[Tanarii]

Honestly I think people make too much of the strength difference. stout halfling will not have to spend as much on dex or con than some races and so in the long run are really not that far behind if at all as some other major races at least in terms of ability scores.

Especially since Barbarian is one of the few classes that does Str primary & Dex 12-14 very well. As above, Id personally go with Dex 16 in the case of a halfling Viking warrior, but with a standard array putting 12(+2) in Dex and the 14 in say Wisdom eouldnt be bad. (Point buy I'd probably start Str 15, Con 15(+1) instead.)